“I may live badly, but at least I don’t have to work to do it.”

Justin’s rating: But where is Marty McFly? He and his father were slackers, or so I heard.

Justin’s review: Before we were widely using the term “cult movie,” we instinctively understood what this phenomenon was when we observed the overnight popularity of movies like Dazed and Confused. Director Richard Linklater’s ode to ’70s teen culture was a huge hit with a certain younger demographic that endlessly quoted and rewatched and evangelized the film.

But while Dazed and Confused was his breakout hit, Linklater first really came onto the scene a few years earlier as part of the growing wave that was the Gen X indie scene. As with his later film subUrbia, Slacker focused on the minutia of young adult urban life. But unlike subUrbia, this film has no main cast but drifts between different characters in Austin, TX to listen to them talk.

That’s what this movie is: A bunch of nameless people musing about life, relationships, pop culture, and whatever else Kevin Smith would make into a life career. When one conversation ends, an invisible baton is handed off to some other people, and the film continues. The camera is kind of this curious ghost, just following people around and getting a feel for the weirdness of life in the process.

Absolutely none of these people are “normal” in any sense, holding bizarre views (we’ve been on the moon since the 1950s, didn’t you know?) or practicing for a future in serial killing or trying to sell a very personal memento of Madonna. Often they launch into huge long monologues that were (sadly) all too typical in the ’90s indie movie scene.

About none of the people here are Hollywood beautiful, which I appreciated, and the continual transition between vignettes made me curious what might pop up next. But that wasn’t enough to overcome the lack of a central cast and, y’know, an actual story. It’s a lot of long-winded essays that reek of pretentiousness that not even the other characters seem to care that much.

It’s a gimmick with a lot of essays crammed into it, probably hoping it would impress people and make them think it’s deep. And hey, maybe it worked, because Linklater certainly took off in the ’90s.

Me? I got pretty bored and restless with this. I can’t imagine a period in my life that I would’ve found Slacker to be riveting. There are some characters in this that could’ve anchored a regular movie, and I did like the period fashion, but that’s just me casting around for something nice to say about a movie that pretty much wasted my time.

Intermission!

• The first guy is describing the multiverse or parallel realities before they were cool
• This guy does not look that concerned that a girl got hit (and the jogger keeps running in place)
• The dude who hits his mom with the car could not be less convincing on the phone
• You can get arrested without the police saying a single word, I guess. Maranda Rights what?
• The coffee bar had its fingers on the pulse of the ’90s, that’s for sure
• You ever notice how conspiracy nutters love the sound of their own voice?
• It’s wild to hear someone wax on and on about the 1988 presidential election
• “It’s Uncle Fester!”
• I did NOT think that the character who’s on all of the posters for this movie was a girl until I heard her voice. I thought she was a weird teen guy with a mullet. It was Teresa Taylor, drummer for Butthole Surfers.